Posted on 05/28/2006 6:35:29 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
WASHINGTON — The constitutional showdown that followed the FBI's search of a congressman's office came down to this: The House threatened budgetary retaliation against the Justice Department. Justice officials raised the prospect of resigning.
That scenario, as described Saturday by a senior administration official, set the stage for President Bush's intervention into the fight over the FBI's search of the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., an eight-term lawmaker being investigated on bribery allegations.
During contentious conversations between the Department of Justice and the House, top law enforcement officials indicated that they'd rather quit than return documents FBI agents, armed with a warrant, seized in an overnight search of Jefferson's office, the administration official said.
Until last Saturday night, no such warrant had ever been used to search a lawmaker's office in the 219-year history of the Congress. FBI agents carted away records in their pursuit of evidence that Jefferson accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for helping set up business deals in Africa.
After the raid, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, lodged a protest directly with Bush, demanding that the FBI return the materials. Bush struck a compromise Thursday, ordering that the documents be sealed for 45 days until congressional leaders and the Justice Department agree on what to do with them.
(Story continues below)
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Try to spin it all you want, this is a case of the legislative thinking is is above the law.
The Founding Father's put exceptions into the Speech and Debate Clause.
They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.
Treason might apply as well if there is hostile foreign government involvement.
And it's better that he stand up and look like he's doing something than leave it to the courts and look useless. Besides Pelosi could probably pull some grandstand stunt. Though I don't know what, the media would try to let her get away with anything she wanted.
I should have said "many of Hastert's critics".
My apologies to you and to any others I may have misrepresented.
In more than 219 years, the Justice Department has never found it necessary to use a search warrant to obtain documents from a congressional office. These issues have always been resolved without the necessity of a search warrant."
What this ignores is that Jefferson refused to comply with a subpoena to surrender the key documents for eight months.
A federal judge then issued a search warrant that allowed the raid, and the FBI was directed by the court not to seize any privileged documents, and if there was any doubt a judge would rule on the issue.
Baloney. He has no legal leg to stand on. Congressmen are not immune from lawfully issued criminal warrants. Show me anywhere in the constitution where such a priviledge exists and I'll eat the whole document.
Hastert got some complaints from some worried congressmen and he made this stink to keep his job. It makes him and everyone in congress look like crooks.
Nixon tried this with against a congressional subpoena. He lost. Despite his protestations to the contrary, he LOOKED like a crook. He shall forever be known as a crook.
Hastert has set himself up for the same image, especially if we find out there are other crooks like Jefferson in congress. And there are. On both sides of the aisle.
Hastings took a bribe to aid drug dealers. The man who paid the bribe was convicted. Hastings beat the rap claiming :racism." Then he was impeached by the House, convicted by the Senate, and removed from office. He could have been barred from any future federal office, but wasn't.
As I understand it, Hastings' office as a judge was searched as part of the case against him. Yet now, he's a Member of Congress who's objecting to the search of Rep. Jefferson's office? Hellooooo.
Should you have occasion to write to Rep. Hastings, the correct form of address is: The formerly-Honorable, Honorable Alcee Hastings. Just trying to be helpful, here.
P.S. My primary is over, but because of certain legal and ethical problems, the incumbent, Charles Taylor may withdraw/be forced out, and I am in the running to be chosen as the replacement nominee for Congress in the 11th District of NC. For more information, see the article below, and my website. I still need your help.
Congressman Billybob
The Rayburn "incident was apparently set off by Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J.
That's a tad scrambled. The program covers calls to or from known or suspected terrorists outside the country. Those are monitored for content. The calls within the country aren't monitored, but the records of who called who are analyzed for patterns of connections to suspected terrorists.
I have no problem with either. Both are legitimate exercises of the power of the President as commander in chief, when authorized by the Congress to use the military forces of the US to prevent another terrorist attack such as occurred on 9-11-01. The latter isn't even spying or monitoring in the classic sense. It's no different than observing who you talk to as you go about your daily business, something for which no warrant is or ever was required.
the word is precent
It's the Justice department whose funding is threatened, not the Judicial branch, that is the courts. Although I wouldn't put it past them to try that little trick as well, should it get to nut cutting time for enough CongressCritters.
Read history -- I was making an analogy ( a·nal·o·gy ( P ) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. a·nal·o·gies
Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.
A comparison based on such similarity. ) .
Which branch does the Justice dept. fall under?
Atiku Abubakar and Aliu Mahama
;-)
No they can't. That is what the Speech and Debate clause forbids. The precedent is already there (Brewster) that members of Congress are not except from enforcement of laws against felonies, of which bribery is one.
Any warrant application to search a Congressional office, must, like other warrants, provide probable cause that a crime has been committed, and must describe the things to be seized.
Your argument could just as well apply to any "fishing expedition" conducted by law enforcement. Oh they might be fishing, so they can't search. Well it doesn't work that way for private citizens, and in the case of felonies, treason and breach of the peace, it doesn't work that way for member s of Congress either.
They can however continue to avoid obeying the traffic laws, at least up to the point that they commit involuntary manslaughter by vehicle. Even then they have a track record of getting away with it, but not because of the Speech and Debate clause.
[Nigerian] Vice President Atiku Abubakar agreed to the "program of cooperation that includes missile technology" with Yang Hyong Sop, the visiting vice president of the North Korean presidium, Abubakar spokesman Onukaba Ojo, told The Associated Press. The North Korean was to be in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, through Saturday. Weapons sales are a major revenue source for financially strapped North Korea.------- "Nigeria Makes Missile Deal With N. Korea," http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=515&ncid=721&e=9&u=/ap/20040128/ap_on_re_af/nigeria_north_korea
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